Munchausen Syndrom by Proxy

AbstractMunchausen Syndrome by Proxy has been characterized by its distinguishable behavior that meets the criteria of fictitious disorder according to the Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, fourth edition, text revision (DSM-IV-TR) (2000). Munchausen Syndrome affects many people that unconsciously expose themselves and their children to unnecessary abuse and maltreatment in attempts to gain attention by medical professionals, friends, and neighbors. The goal of clinicians and forensic professionals is to be able to effectively detect and assess individuals that maltreat their children hoping to treat these individuals and their families.

Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy: What’s the Mystery?Munchausen Syndrome is a rather new phenomenon that was developed first in 1951 by Dr. Richard Asher to classify an unexplainable behavior that seem to only affect adults which began as a random and indistinguishable problem within the healthcare system. This behavior had originated as being a behavior that affected adults however healthcare professionals began to notice that a trend was beginning to appear with this same type of behaviors affecting young child within their pediatric hospitals. Adult Munchausen Syndrome is characterized as the intentional and chronic pursuit of medical treatment by way of inflicting injury to themselves and/or the fabrication of illness or symptoms. This behavior is deliberately used to attract the attention of medical personal and elicit the concern of friends and family. The goal of an individual diagnosed with Munchausen Syndrome is to meet their unconscious pathological need to assume the sick role by way of fabricating or intentionally producing physical illnesses and/or psychological symptoms. These individuals will inflict themselves with serious pain to their body or limbs, inject themselves with chemicals or bacteria, and/or cause themselves to bleed enough to warrant themselves a trip to the emergency room. This intentional behavior is repeated over and over within the hospital sometimes requiring physicians to perform various types of operations until medical professionals become suspicious. When medical professionals start to ask questions and challenge the victims accounts of incidents they then move to a new hospital where the behaviors start back up. These types of behaviors fall under factitious disorder due to the perpetrators motivation and psychological need to gain medical attention through the fabrication of illnesses and symptoms. According to an article titled “Forensic Assessment of Illness Falsification, Munchausen by Proxy, and Factitious Disorder, NOS” (Sanders & Bursch, 2002) the authors explain that Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy had been added to the America Psychological Association (1994) Diagnostic Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder, 4th ed. (DSM-IV) under the criterion of factitious disorder. The components of factitious disorder mimic the unconscious psychological need and physical motivations of Munchausen Syndrome and Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy perpetrators. Ayoub, Alexander, Beck, Bursch, Feldman, Libow, Sanders, Schreier, and Yorker (2002) in their position paper titled “Definitional Issues in Munchausen by Proxy” explain that this problematic behavior require clinicians to be able to differentiate between the motivational factors and the clinical presentation of the behavior. In 1977, Dr. Roy Meadow classified intentional injury, harm, and/or maltreatment directed at a child as Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy....

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...Jerry Covington
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This presentation is an overview of the condition factitious disorder by proxy, also known as Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MBP). We’ll begin by highlighting the definitions of the disorder and the etiology. Then we’ll analyze relevant symptoms of the perpetrator and the reasons they abuse the child. Some methods of abuse are highlighted and the social psychiatric illness common in the perpetrator. A discussion of the complex issues facing the medical professionals when faced with confronting the perpetrator and the decision to take the child away from the parent is also included. The prognosis for the perpetrator does not look very good and further research into treatment for family’s needs to be done. The popular solution employed now is to remove the child. Family reunification is not common because the recidivism is very high as in most child abuse cases.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy (MBP), a type of factitious disorder, is a mental illness. It is a term used to describe a behavior pattern where a caregiver, usually a parent, deliberately fabricates and perpetrates an illness upon a child. This person acts as if an individual he or she is caring for has a physical or mental illness when the person is not really sick. The adult perpetrator has MBP and...

...Munchausen Syndrome by ProxyMunchausen Syndrome by Proxy is a serious disorder that is often looked over by many. It is a very serious disease and must not be taken lightly. Munchausen syndrome by proxy, also known as factitious disorder by proxy, is a form of child abuse where the mother or parent makes up or produces illnesses in their own child. Many cases of this disease have lead to the death of the child and imprisonment of the parent. This is a disease that needs to be made aware of and not looked over by anyone person.
The parent produces or makes up the child’s symptoms to where it is serious enough to take to a physician or a hospital. Once at the hospital the child’s symptoms seem to mysteriously disappear, though they may repair again as soon as the child is out of view of anyone other than the alleged parent. Normally, the child’s symptoms do not fit a classical illness or do not fill well together to create one illness but rather symptoms of different illnesses. The physician often notices that the parent is overattentive or too helpful. The parent makes the smallest symptoms seem much larger. When the physician dismisses the case, the parent is very distraught and will often make the symptoms worse in order for the physician to take more notice to the child next time. All too often the parent producing the illness is in the health care field. This helps the...

...Abstract
Munchausen syndrome by proxy is one of the most difficult and rare form of child abuse. It carries substantial morbidity and mortality and comprises both physical abuse and medical neglect and is also a form of psychological maltreatment. The diagnosis relies on appropriate suspicion and careful investigation. Early recognition and appropriate intervention prevent further abuse and criminal actions. The fabrication of a pediatric illness is a form of child abuse and not merely a mental health disorder, and there is a possibility of an extremely poor prognosis if the child is left in the home. Certain factors are identified that may help the physician recognize this insidious type of child abuse that occurs in a medical setting, and physicians have to report suspicions to their state's child protective service agency. This paper highlights how Munchausen syndrome by proxy cases is handled.
Munchausen syndrome by proxy: detection, investigation and legal proceedings
Munchausen syndrome-by-Proxy (MSBP), also known as Medical Child Abuse (MCA), is a mental disorder in which a parent (usually the mother) abuses her child by creating or falsifying medical symptoms, or by seeking unnecessary medical care for the child, in order to gain attention and sympathy. In 1998 the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) reported that...

...Munchausen By Proxy Syndrome
Some of you may remember back in 1995 a story covered on about every news station about a young girl named Jennifer Bush who had been hospitalized 200 times and had undergone over 40 surgeries including the removal of most of her intestines. By the time she was eight years old. Or what about a story that wasn't on the news about a young boy who lived down the street from me that I grew up with and was friends with who in the course of one year had been admitted to the hospital over 20 times for asthma, severe pneumonia, mysterious infections, and sudden fevers. The doctors had no idea in either case what was causing the problems. They may just sound like sick children but both of these cases are the cause of a very severe form of child abuse called Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome. Also known as MBPS. Not all of us in here have children but some of us are expecting and others of us know children from friends or even family members. But do you every stop and think to yourself could someone be hurting that child. I will be discussing What MBPS is Why it happens and What happens to the children. Now that I have your attention lets talk about what this problem is.
Munchausen by Proxy Syndrome is a condition in which an individual (usually a mother) deliberately makes their preschool aged child sick. The parent will mislead others (doctors, friends, family) into...

...The curious case of Munchausen By Proxy
Safa Elkhidir
Metropolitan State University
Introduction
Munchausen Syndrome dates back to 1843, when British physician Hector Gavin differentiated between people who faked an illness to achieve some sort of compensation and those who pretended to be ill for no other reason but to assume the sick role (Berry, 2008). The name Munchausen came from German cavalry captain who known for telling exaggerated stories about his life, travels and adventures (Berry, 2008). The first case of Munchausen syndrome diagnosed in 1951 by the British physician Richard Asher. He noted “the most remarkable feature of the syndrome is the apparent senselessness of it becoming a patient is the purpose of the syndrome" (Criddle, 2010, p. 46).
Overview of the Disorder
Munchausen By Proxy is a rare but devastating illness. This is a condition where a caregiver induces or fabricates illness in a child, and presents for medical treatment (Beard, 2007). The DSM-IV -TR calls Munchausen By Proxy, a Factitious Disorder, in which the following criteria apply: 1. Intentional production or feigning of physical signs or symptoms. 2. The motivation for the behavior to assume the sick role. 3. External incentives for the behavior (such as economic gain, avoiding legal liability, or improving physical well-being, and in Malingering) are...

...Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy : Family Violence Research Paper
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy (MSBP) is referred to as several names, such as, fabrication illness and hospital addiction syndrome. The Maternal Child Nursing Care text book defines this syndrome as, “a rare but serious form of child abuse in which the caretaker deliberately exaggerates or fabricates histories and symptoms or induce symptoms. It is a form of child maltreatment that may include physical, emotional, and psychologic abuse for the gratification of the caretaker.”… ( pg 1067) The mother is the usual the offender that fabricates a false history of symptoms for her child resulting in attention from medical professionals and also making the child endure painful or unnecessary medical testing and procedures. “Motivations for this bizarre behavior continue to puzzle both medical and mental health professionals, but patients have in common a profound psychological need to assume the sick role and do so in absence of external incentives for the behavior, such as economic gain, access to narcotics, or a desire to avoid work or other unpleasant situations.”… (Criddle 2010)
There are several forms of MSBP that range from mild to severe. Mild MSBP would include symptom fabrication, like claiming that their child experienced symptoms like apnea or ataxia. Moderate MSBP could include evidence tampering, such as manipulating lab specimens or falsifying...

...Munchausen Syndrome 1
Running head: Munchausen Syndrome
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 5
References
Author: Ibrahim Abdulhamid, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Wayne State University; Director of Pediatric Pulmonary Medicine, Clinical Director of Pediatric Sleep Laboratory, Children's Hospital of Michigan
Coauthor(s): Patricia T Siegel, PhD, Assistant Professor, Departments of Pediatrics, Psychiatry and Behavioral Neurosciences, Wayne State University School of Medicine
Contributor Information and Disclosures
Updated: Mar 26, 2008
Mary E. Muscari, PhD, CPNP, APRN-BC
Experts And Viewpoint, Medscape Nurses, April 2008
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy 2
Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy
I chose to write my paper on Munchausen Syndrome by proxy because I find it very fascinating and disturbing that people could actually harm their children or themselves for attention. Munchausen syndrome is a condition in which a person intentionally fakes, simulates, worsens, or self-induces an injury or illness for the main purpose of being treated like a medical patient.
The term Munchausen syndrome is often used interchangeably with factitious disorder. Factitious disorder refers to any illness that is intentionally produced for the main purpose of assuming the sick role, although that purpose is...

...﻿MUNCHAUSEN IS MORE THAN A MOVIE, IT’S ALSO
THE NAME OF A BIZARRE MEDICAL DISORDER
With The Adventures of Baron Munchausen playing in theaters across the nation this spring, many Americans are having their first introduction to the 18th-century German baron who was a famous teller of extremely tall tales. Most moviegoers are unaware, though, that he gave his name to a bizarre condition that afflicts from 4,000 to 12,000 Americans and costs the U.S. taxpayers as much as $40 million a year. Sufferers from Munchausen syndrome, so named by an English doctor in 1951, “go from hospital to hospital, inventing fantastic tales of illness or accidents to get the medical attention they crave,” says Dr. Loren Pankratz, one of the foremost experts on the disorder. Pankratz, 49, an associate professor of medical psychology and psychiatry at the Oregon Health Sciences University, spoke to correspondent Susan Hauser about the syndrome and some of the dozens of sufferers whose tales he has heard.
What causes Munchausen syndrome?
There are several theories to explain the complex problems of the Munchausen patient. An easy one to understand relates to learning “illness behavior” at an early age. Some Munchausen patients have what I call the Dudley Moore syndrome. As a child, Dudley had a limp and was teased unmercifully by other children. Once when he was in the hospital, a nurse gave him a...